Stranger Offers To Pay For Fellow Walmart Shopper’s Diapers When They Cost More Than Expected

Usually when one hears a shopper has been caught on tape, the mind leaps immediately to troublesome behaviors we’ve seen in the past from bad consumers. That makes it all the more refreshing to see a stranger offer to pay for her fellow shopper’s purchase, after she’d realized she couldn’t get a price match on all four boxes of diapers and thus, could only afford one.

While waiting in line behind the two women, a local wedding entertainer filmed the interaction between the two, reports the Argus Leader (warning: video auto-plays), unbeknownst to them. He posted it on Facebook this week, and it’s since been shared more than 1,000 times and “liked” by more than 4,000 people.

The older woman had made her selections and gotten into line behind the young mother, who had four 148-count packages of diapers in her cart, and nothing else. When the line wasn’t moving, she wandered off and came back later. The same customer was there, but only had one box of diapers. Apparently, the lower price offered by a competitor could only be price-matched for one box, instead of all four.

The video shows the older woman taking the three boxes and putting them back on the checkout lane, then she pulls out her credit card and tells the cashier to ring it all up on her. She and the mom chat briefly and leave.

“I couldn’t believe it. I was shocked. I kept saying thank you and God bless you,” says the mother, who’s raising her 4-month-old son with her husband on a single income. She’d heard about the price-match deal and thought it would be a boon for their budget.

All the older woman asked is that she pay it forward sometime in the future when she could, and help someone else in need.

Her new friend didn’t know the moment had been caught on tape either, until someone called and asked her about it. She says she didn’t do it for glory, she did it because it had to be done.

“You can’t take it with you,” she says of the $120 she spent on the diapers. “I just think we should do things like that. That’s kind of my thinking.”